


Not exactly a united front

by dancinguniverse



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-10 04:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4377749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancinguniverse/pseuds/dancinguniverse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The polyamorous life in small town Maine has its complications. </p><p>"Nathan likes to be discreet," Audrey shrugs. "You know the meaning of the word, Crocker?" she teases.</p><p>Duke grins. "Sounds boring."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not exactly a united front

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lovesrogue36](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovesrogue36/gifts).



> Thanks [lovesrogue36](http://archiveofourown.org/users/lovesrogue36) for a lovely prompt. I'm not sure I did it the justice it deserves, but I hope you like it anyway. I love these three, so I enjoyed writing it.

The Gull is mostly empty, winding down after last call and the kitchen's close, and Audrey and Nathan are the only two left at the bar, clustered at one end while Duke wraps up fruit garnishes and fills the ice chests. "I should take off," Nathan says, louder than he needs to, and Duke rolls his eyes at Audrey.

"Yeah. It'd be really unusual if you were here after I close," Duke says, matching Nathan's slightly broadcast tone, and Nathan frowns, jerking his head at the couple lingering at a far table. Because of course they're paying any attention. 

And what would it matter if they did?  It's Duke's property, and Audrey's apartment gives her carte blanche to haunt the bar at all hours. And since Audrey rides with Nathan most days, they can always claim late casework if his truck ends up in the lot well outside of civilized hours. Nathan doesn't see it so simply. 

"Nathan," Audrey says, softer, and he looks at her. "They'll be gone in a few, just head upstairs. We'll be right up." 

He shakes his head. "Things are complicated enough," he says, voice so low Duke has to strain to hear it, just across the bar. For many reasons, Nathan seems to have the hardest time with this thing none of them have a name for. He can be jealous of Audrey and Duke in turn or simultaneously. He worries that as police chief, he shouldn't date his co-worker, nor the man he's arrested more times than he can count. He worries that Audrey touches him out of pity, that Duke is still playing games. He worries about the image he thinks he should maintain for the community, and how to do his job if that image suffers.

"He gives  _me_  ulcers," Duke complains after Nathan makes a show out of paying for his drink and driving off. Audrey is still nursing a whiskey while Duke has moved on to stacking glassware. "No one cares. Kyle!" he yells to one of the men just outside the door, smoking and finishing a beer. "Kyle, you know who just left?"

"Aw, one more drink, man, we're having a conversation out here!"

Duke raises his eyebrows pointedly at Audrey. "No one cares," he repeats.

"He likes to be discreet," Audrey shrugs, though she, too, was throwing annoyed looks at Nathan's back as he left. She throws a soggy napkin across the bar at him. "You know the meaning of the word, Crocker?" she teases.

Duke grins, catching the napkin against his shoulder and throwing it right back. "Sounds boring," he tells her.

They climb the creaking steps to her apartment together — Nathan's hangups don't mean they have to live like nuns — but she's quiet when they climb into bed. "Hey," he says softly, stroking at her hair. "Does it bother you? If people know?"

She raises her eyebrows at him in the dim light of the bedroom. "Oh, now you're asking?" He makes a dismissive noise, and she sighs, rolling her eyes like she's looking for help. "I don't know, Duke." She rolls onto her back, running a hand through her hair. "Nathan's not wrong about some of it, but..." She lowers her voice, shakes her head. "I don't even know if I'm _real_ , half the time. Having you two... it's something Lucy didn't have, Sarah..." She bites her lip. "I feel like no one else in this town would notice if some other version of me showed up, and I just disappeared. I don't like people talking about me, but I feel like myself when I'm with you. I feel like I _have_ a self." 

"Audrey." Duke runs a hand up over her shoulder, cups her face. "You're definitely real."

She smiles at him, a little sad but genuine. "So I don't care who knows. At least they'd know something about _me_."

* * *

Laverne calls Nathan in the middle of a night he didn't retreat, and he struggles out of sleep, shrugging off Duke's arm draped over his chest and reaching over Audrey's sleepy murmurs to scrape his cell phone off the bedside table. There are wolves on Main Street, and a lion on Jefferson Avenue. Haven has no zoo. 

"You guys want a hand with that?" Duke asks fuzzily, biting back a yawn. They're piled into Audrey's bed, or were. Now Audrey and Nathan are performing a sleepy but practiced dance, pulling clothes out of drawers and maneuvering around each other to brush teeth and get dressed. 

"They called the police. You're the complete opposite of that," Nathan tells him, but softens it with a kiss to the side of Duke's mouth. "Go back to sleep. We'll sort it out." 

Audrey throws the covers back over Duke's legs, and she and Nathan trudge down the stairs together.

Duke finds them anyway at first light, dodging a small herd of antelope to hand out two coffees, keeping a third for himself.

"Thanks, Crocker," Dwight comments. He's on his knees on the ground, inspecting what looks like a collapsible dog kennel that currently contains a baleful looking cheetah. He looks like he's got it under control, though. And anyway, he doesn't have any hands free for a travel cup.

"Hey, buy me dinner and we'll see about coffee in the morning," Duke tells him. 

"Duke," Nathan warns. Audrey's already patted him on the arm for the coffee and is making her way over to an onlooker, who peers at the animals nervously. 

"I see more than I need of you as it is," Dwight returns, though most of his attention is still on the cheetah. 

Duke grins, and when Nathan gets distracted by a conversation coming across the radio, he decides to see how close he can actually get to the antelope. They seem more concerned with the well trimmed grass behind the gas station than they do with their sudden appearance in small town Maine. He's crept within about six feet when the closest one looks up in alarm, bounding off to the far side of the yard and scattering the others with it. Duke looks over his shoulder to where Dwight suddenly looms, watching the herd speculatively. 

"I'm working really hard to pretend I don't know about Nathan's sex life," he says, still watching the antelope, a pained expression on his face. "Our lives are weird enough. I need some boundaries. Are we clear?"

Duke cocks his head. "Does Nathan know you know?"

Dwight shrugs. "I don't know. He wants to tell me, he can tell me. Lay off him in front of... people," he decides after a brief pause, apparently opting for the broadest possible request. "For my sake," he adds. He's not even looking at Duke, nothing like a threat, but Duke is as aware as ever that Dwight could take him apart one-handed. Plus there's the part where, despite Nathan's occasional claims, he's trying a lot more these days not to make his boyfriend's life hell for the fun of it, so he nods carefully.

"Sure thing, Sasquatch." 

Sometimes after that, when he remembers, be brings an extra coffee when he swings by the station or a crime scene. After all, whatever Dwight wants to turn a blind eye to, he's pretty good about letting Duke know when anything happens to Audrey or Nathan, so Duke figures fair's fair. 

* * *

It's a harder adjustment when Nathan finds him below decks on the  _Cape Rouge_ a few weeks later, places two hands to his chest, and shoves him hard. 

"Nathan, what the hell?" he snaps, stumbling backwards, holding up his hands. "That is not how we say hello!" 

"This is what happens!" Nathan yells, and Duke gathers that he means the crumpled sheet of paper he's also shoving at Duke's chest. "Real people with completely normal, anticipated reactions, but sure, let's just wave it in everyone's faces!"

"Nate, buddy, I have no idea —" Duke starts, and Nathan slaps the paper at his chest again. This time Duke grabs it, scanning it while Nathan glares at him, breathing hard and clearly itching to shove Duke around some more. Duke feels a heavy ball settle in his stomach as the words resolve themselves, none of it crass, nothing untrue, and all of it relentlessly judgmental. "What is this?"

"That," Nathan says, evenly now that he has Duke's attention, "is an opinion piece submitted to the  _Herald_. Vince and Dave decided not to run it, but they thought I might want to be made aware, for the sake of gauging public opinion." He throws up his hands. "And also apparently Vince and Dave know."

Duke frowns, distracted. "Vince gave you this?"

"Dave," Nathan tells him, and Duke shakes his head. Dave could learn to shut his mouth, sometimes. Duke lets out a long breath, reading the letter more carefully. Jesus, what a load of bullshit. Small-town America definitely has its drawbacks. Slowly, the ball of tension boils into anger. It's not like they're having sex on Main Street. Why should anyone care what they do? And why should their opinion matter to anyone, definitely including the readership of the _Herald_ , but least of all Nathan?

"It's just one person," he says finally, and Nathan narrows his eyes, unswayed. "What?" Duke snaps. "It's one person, Nate. Screw 'em. Screw —" he raises the paper again, " _Concerned Haven Citizen_ ," he reads sarcastically. "So what if they don't approve? You think they'd approve of your work with the Guard? You think everyone approves of Audrey  _helping_ Troubled people? You think  _anyone_ approves of me and my  _lovely_ curse?"

"This is different," Nathan argues, and Duke shoves the paper back at him. 

"No, it's not." And sometimes Duke wishes he blew a little less hot air most of the time, since Nathan in particular isn't great at tuning in when he's trying to say something meaningful. "It's just people, trying to live their lives. That's what we  _do_ , is help them. Not cave to anyone who can't handle something a little different."

"Oh,  _we_ do that?" Nathan asks, skeptical, and Duke pulls at his hair. 

"Fine, you and Audrey do that." Hell if he's going to have that fight right now. "Is that really the point?"

Nathan runs a hand over his face, and looks around before dropping into one of Duke's kitchen chairs. "No," he admits, and Duke approaches cautiously, sitting down opposite him. Sitting is good. Sitting isn't a shoving match, like they're twelve years old again. Yet somehow  _he's_  the immature one. "The Troubled people don't have a choice," Nathan says, and hey, at least they're talking now, instead of yelling. "We do." 

The tight ball is back in Duke's stomach. "So what? You want to stop? All of it?" He catches himself, makes sure his voice stays steady, because he's always known, if Nathan had to choose... "Or just me?" 

Nathan rubs his hands over his eyes. "Of course not," he grunts, but Duke's jaw stays clenched until Nathan lowers his hands, letting out a long sigh. He scoots his chair closer, gripping the back of Duke's neck and kissing him until Duke softens, letting his hands settle at Nathan's waist. "You're right," Nathan mutters, nipping at Duke's lower lip. "Screw them. We're fixing this town. They want to offer criticism, let 'em judge that."

"To be clear," Duke says, when Nathan presses one final kiss against his mouth and leans back. "I'm not recommending you publish that letter. Since I know sometimes you overcompensate on these kinds of things."

Nathan grins at him. "No guts," he teases, and Duke rolls his eyes. 

"Jesus. I was thinking we could burn it." 

Nathan hooks an arm over the back of his chair, thoughtful. "Audrey will definitely want to burn it."

Duke folds his arms. "That means you have to stay tonight. We can't burn it without you. It's about you." 

Nathan narrows his eyes. "It's about all of us." 

Duke see-saws a hand. "It's mostly about you." 

Nathan grabs his hand and pulls it down, leaning in to kiss him again, and this time it keeps going, until Duke pulls him up, walking them over to the bed. "I always want to stay," Nathan says against Duke's throat, burying his nose in Duke's hair and kissing his neck. 

"Coulda fooled me," Duke gasps, because Nathan's hand is down his pants, and he's gotten _really_ good at this. 

Nathan kisses him over and over again. "I'm working on it."

* * *

 

It's a Saturday morning when Vince and Dave nearly break down Audrey's door with their pounding. "Oh! I'm glad you're all here," Vince says when she lets them in, apparently overlooking the fact that they're eating pancakes in their pajamas at her kitchen table.

"What is it?" Audrey asks, and he tells them that the morning's issue of the _Herald_ is predicting people's deaths, when he and Dave have written nothing of the sort, and clearly a Trouble is responsible. 

"Okay," Audrey says, brow furrowed. "But no one's actually died yet?" 

"We can't take that chance," Dave frets. "This is Haven. But why is it affecting the paper? It's not us!" 

"We'll be right in," Audrey promises. "Give us a few minutes to put on real clothes?"

They look behind her, and Duke waves. Nathan is already on his feet, trying to carry his plate to the sink and cram the last quarter of his pancakes into his mouth at the same time. "Yes," Vince says, looking back to Audrey and taking in her clothes for the first time. "Of course. We'll be downstairs." He hustles Dave back out of the apartment. 

Duke lets the first bustle of activity get underway, waiting until Nathan is brushing his teeth before he comments. "You're not going to freak out about that at all?"

Nathan spits out his toothpaste. "Weird newspaper doings? We've seen a lot worse." 

"Not that." 

Nathan rinses his mouth and then kisses Duke on the cheek, pushing past him out of the bathroom. "I am pretty mad I didn't get seconds."

"Audrey," Duke whines, and she raises an eyebrow from her perch on the edge of the bed where she's tying her bootlaces. 

"Are you complaining?"

"Me? Nope. Not this guy." Nathan smirks at him, and takes Audrey's hand in his when she stands, nodding at him that she's ready. "I don't have a single thing to complain about." He waits a beat. "Except scary death-predicting newspapers." 

Audrey reaches out, takes his hand in her other, and tows them both toward the door. "Then let's get to work."


End file.
